| Black Rose: A Rock Legend | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Thin Lizzy |
| Cover: | Thin_Lizzy_-_Black_Rose_A_Rock_Legend.jpg |
| Caption: | Cover art by Jim Fitzpatrick |
| Released: | 13 April 1979 |
| Recorded: | December 1978 – February 1979 |
| Studio: | Pathé Marconi EMI Studios, Paris, France, Good Earth Studios and Morgan Studios, London, UK[1] |
| Length: | 38:49 |
| Label: | Vertigo Mercury (Canada) Warner Bros. (US) |
| Producer: | Tony Visconti and Thin Lizzy, Tony Visconti and Phil Lynott (on "With Love") |
| Prev Title: | Bad Reputation |
| Prev Year: | 1977 |
| Next Title: | Chinatown |
| Next Year: | 1980 |
Black Rose: A Rock Legend is the ninth studio album by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy. Released in 1979, it has been described as one of the band's "greatest, most successful albums".[2] It was the first time that guitarist Gary Moore remained in Thin Lizzy long enough to record an album—after previous brief stints in 1974 and 1977 with the band. The album peaked at No. 2 on the UK charts--[3] making it the band's highest-charting album in the UK. It was their fourth consecutive album to be certified Gold by the BPI.
Black Rose included the second song Phil Lynott wrote about a member of his family titled "Sarah", the first song by this name having appeared on 1972's Shades of a Blue Orphanage, written about his grandmother, also named Sarah. The song on Black Rose is about his new-born daughter.
The last track "Róisín Dubh", consists of traditional songs, all arranged by Lynott and Moore, as well as many original parts. The song "Will You Go Lassie, Go" (also known as "Wild Mountain Thyme") is sometimes mistakenly credited as a traditional song but was in fact written by William McPeake and first recorded by Francis McPeake. It is credited on the album to "F. McPeak."
At least two of the songs - "Waiting for an Alibi" and "S & M" - were debuted on the early summer 1978 dates before Brian Robertson's departure from the band.
In a contemporary favourable review for the Irish magazine Hot Press, Dermot Stokes remarked: "Black Rose marks no major departure" from Thin Lizzy's "crystallised" imagery and sound, although "a poppier-feel insinuates itself here and there--seemingly by design". However, he was dubious about the rosy vision of Ireland offered in the title track and wondered whether the band had lost contact with the real life of their country.[4] Writing in Smash Hits, Red Starr stated that the album: "lacked memorable melodies" and that "the blend of traditional tunes in the title track is an unholy mess." Starr acknowledged that fans of the band would be happy with "the reworking of their familiar hard rock style" but went on to note that there was: "nothing new for the rest of us."
In a modern review, Greg Prato of AllMusic described the album as: "Thin Lizzy's last true classic album" and "their most musically varied, accomplished, and successful studio album." He praised Moore's presence as: "a perfect fit" and singled out "Do Anything You Want To", "Waiting for an Alibi" and "Sarah" as stand-out tracks. He also praised the title track and its "amazing, complex guitar solo." In his Collectors Guide to Heavy Metal, Martin Popoff defined the album as "a charmed release" where "Waiting for an Alibi" and "Got to Give It Up" emerge as "two Thin Lizzy classics" and the title track "is on a plane more in league with fine literature than anything as base as rock 'n' roll."
A new remastered and expanded edition of Black Rose was released on 27 June 2011. This new edition is a 2-CD set—with the original album on disc one and bonus material on disc two.